Commemorating a record-setting flight of 86 years ago, Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett and his co-pilot successfully flew a biplane across the Atlantic and landed Sunday on an Irish golf course to the cheers of 2,000 onlookers.
Fossett and antique airplane enthusiast Mark Rebholz, who jointly operated a custom-built replica Vickers Vimy, wanted to honor and emulate the June 1919 achievement of British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown.
Both air crews flew from Newfoundland to Clifden in western Ireland using compasses and sextants for navigation. While Alcock and Whitten-Brown managed the feat in 16 hours, 20 minutes, Fossett and Rebholz took about 45 minutes longer. And while the British pioneers crash-landed in a bog, their U.S. successors landed smoothly.
